Chereads / Indra's last reincarnation / Chapter 35 - Close quaters

Chapter 35 - Close quaters

"You're still sure you want to go through with it?" Naruto asked Karin, one more time.

They had gone over the possible combinations, and settled on something that would make sense for her.

"Entirely." She answered, a bit afraid but resolute.

"All three of them?"

"Yes."

"You have them firmly in mind, then?"

"Yes."

"…I guess we can get started, then."

It was her turn to sit on her floor, now. Naruto drew the supporting seals, as only the actual carving had to be done by her hand.

"Dagger, please." She asked.

He summoned a crystal dagger and handed it to her, wordlessly.

"Magatama." He heard her say.

He remembered the meanings as though it were yesterday.

Health. Strength. Stamina. Fertility. Soul. Moon.

She plunged the dagger in her belly and he was tempted to look away.

Karin doesn't make a sound, pulling the surrounding seals in.

She gasped then, before motioning for him to continue.

"Mokumokuren."

Karin carved the circular symbol on her forehead.

The "Many Eyes." A creature supposed to be capable of haunting houses, and seeing everywhere.

Another legend, more specific to Uzushio, talked about a spirit able to see everything, the "All-Seeing Eye." That's the interpretation Karin focused on.

She compacted the many symbols around her into the seal, until all that was left was a single purple dot in the middle of her forehead.

Last one.

"Amaterasu."

This one went to the middle of her back, along her spine.

Goddess of the Sun. Purity and Order. Divine Right. Vitality. Fertility.

Karin stiffened, her jaws locked.

She let out a scream once it was done. Naruto caught her.

Karin spent the following four days in bed.

Naruto kept a clone with her at all times, while he worked on finally separating the room in three parts.

It really didn't take long, as they had plenty of raw material. Two walls were set up relatively quickly. Making them hold with Natural Order was even easier than using regular construction binding jutsu.

Then he soundproofed every room. Now they'd have some privacy.

He nodded. That was good.

Karin was looking better. She was not looking so pale anymore, and he felt himself relax a bit.

"…Naruto?"

"Oh. You're awake?" He came closer.

"Yes. A bit… dazed, though. It's very warm, too."

He winced. "Ah… I still haven't managed to do anything about that. Sorry."

She chuckled. "No, don't worry about it. It's alright."

"Do you want something to eat… to read, maybe?"

"No, no thanks." Karin hesitated. "Come… Keep me company, maybe?"

"Sure thing. I'm here." He grinned.

"No… I mean come closer. I'm cold."

"Huh? But you just said you felt too warm."

"…That was before. I changed my mind." She let out a shiver. It looked… kinda exaggerated?

Well, if she was cold, she was cold.

"All right, then." He nodded resolutely. "I won't let you freeze. You helped me, too. I'll do the same."

"Yes please." She said, nodding fast.

He removed his clothes right away and she let out a small whimper.

"Oh, sorry." He said sheepishly. "I guess I should have warned you. Well, you can close your eyes."

"Yes. Yes, thanks." She nodded, red in the face. He really should have warned her, he thought.

He removed his underwear, and she didn't close her eyes at all.

'...She's a strange one'.

Well, that was Karin, he guessed.

"Scoot over." He said.

He would have felt a bit more… tense normally, but this was only about helping his closest friend.

He took her in his arms, letting her head rest against his chest. She moaned.

He nodded. He knew how it felt to be this cold.

It must have been very relieving to feel human warmth.

Karin was having a very pleasant dream.

It was a …strangely intense erotic dream.

She moaned and let herself relax.

More…

Just a bit more…

There. She was so close.

She let out a small cry as she came.

Karin woke up. She was straddling Naruto, who was fast asleep. There was something hard… and very wet grinding against her lower lips. She put a hand to her mouth to avoid whimpering, and looked down.

She had been wrong, nothing was grinding against her.

Instead, she was the one grinding herself on his length. She avoided staring too much, averting her yes. She felt heat rush to her face.

As for why it was so wet… well, she could see it was also her.

…What the hell was she doing?

'Did this ritualistic shit just give me sexsomnia...?'

No wonder Naruto was restless. She slowly lifted herself away from him, stifling a little gasp.

She needed a shower… She really needed a cold shower.

She needed…

He's fast asleep. She's painfully horny. Wake him up…? Then what?

A shower.

Two minutes later, she was in the shower. There are two fingers buried up to their second knuckle inside her drenched folds.

Naruto was not sure why Karin looked so… guilty — he thought that's what it was — the days after.

What he knew for sure was that her vision — deemed incurable even by medical ninja — was getting better day after day. It wasn't long before she got rid of the glasses her late mother had given her, sealing them within the necklace she was always wearing.

She said her chakra sensing ability was slowly getting better too, whether it was in terms of range or precision.

As expected, she felt her chakra has taken on a quality it didn't have before, even if her reserves will be a fair bit smaller for the foreseeable future.

That means that even her healing ability is amplified. It wasn't long before the scars on her body, all of them, started fading away.

It was one of the only times Naruto saw her cry.

He took her in his arms, and he could feel her squirming a bit.

Later on, she helped him build a third… and even a fourth propeller.

When the wind is blowing in the right direction and all propellers are running, it feels as though they are flying.

The sailors had trouble believing it too, it seemed.

They were getting close to the area they were aiming for. Just a few more weeks.

...A few more weeks.

The waves were more tumultuous in this part of the world, Naruto noticed. Whenever they stopped to fish, or just to take a break, the boat was swinging from side to side.

Seeing Karin's face, Sakura used a Water jutsu to make the zone directly around their boat a bit more stable for a few minutes.

She nodded thankfully.

"Tell me, Karin." Naruto asked.

"Yes..?" She whipped her head.

"Am I wrong... or are there stronger chakra signatures in the water?"

She nodded. "There are. I'm not sure what is the cause, but there must be some pretty large fish swimming in here."

"Does that mean we're getting closer, Shinjiro?"

The man shrugged. "Well, we are pretty close." Seeing Naruto's unimpressed face, he continued, laughing. "I don't know about the fish, but I would say it's more likely to mean that the bigger predators moved to this part of the ocean, where there's probably more food for them. Strange that they are so concentrated, though."

"Anything to be worried about?"

"Well, likely not. Either there's no big predator around here at all… or we passed it already."

"Couldn't it still be ahead of us?"

"Sure. That's also possible." The man shrugged.

Regular training was also a decent way to relieve some tension. Which could have been a real problem, otherwise.

Naruto won a spar against Sakura. He held a hand to her, picked her up and avoided staring at her glistening body.

He'd gotten decent at that, by now.

The seals were definitely a stronger influence, now that he had reinforced them with several Tomoe. He could manage, but mostly because he didn't want to ruin his friendship with either Sakura or Karin. Also, he was somewhat used to it, at this point.

Sakura left the room, which was starting to feel like an oven.

Karin initiated with a high kick. He slipped under, his palm strike finding her in the stomach.

She grunted, moving away. They exchanged a pair of kicks, then she parried his punches.

Still, he could tell she was distracted. He caught her in a headlock, but she managed to slip an elbow in his choke.

She had gotten stronger with the daily training, and he can't help but notice she looked stronger, firmer than she used to. And the way sweat drips down her neck. Her flushed face.

He heard her gasp. He could guess the reason, feeling a bit embarrassed.

She raised her hips until her ass pressed against him firmly.

'Oh, no. That's not good.'

She was flushed, looking as though she were in a trance. Karin rubbed herself against him. She let out a strange little noise.

Naruto let her go.

"Sorry, Karin." He let out.

"No… No. It's me." She said, just as embarrassed.

"Ah. No big deal. I guess it happens." He laughed, trying to break the tension. "We've been stuck on a boat for a while, and the seals are definitely not helping."

"Yes. Yes. The seals." She nodded frenetically.

"I…"

"Yes..?" Karin looked at him intensely. Almost… expectantly?

"I'm… I'm going to get some fresh air."

"Ah."

He headed for the showers.

Naruto spent most of his day doing… anything but thinking about the training session.

Karin did the exact same, staying mostly on the deck.

Then they slept and proceeded to be slightly more awkward than usual around each other the next morning.

None of them worried, they knew it was just a very temporary thing. They were too good friends for anything like that to last.

'Is it night already…?'

He had spent a lot of time indoors that day, and hadn't been paying a lot of attention to what was happening outdoors.

It was pitch black outside. By now, it was a sight he had seen what felt like a hundred of times.

Still, there was something strange about it. No stars were shining in the sky.

He felt a bit uneasy.

He could barely see the stairs he was about to climb to get to the deck, so he made a single-handed seal.

"Lightning Release: Starlight."

He had made sure the ball of energy would be more bright than usual. Even then, it barely illuminated his way. That was… definitely not normal.

Naruto went up the stairs carefully.

'Where is everyone?'

Why was there no one?

He was starting to wonder if this was another dream… meeting with the Sage's son.

Naruto was on the deck now.

At any point, he was expecting these accursed red eyes to stare him down.

There.

He saw a light.

'Ah.'

That was coming from the quarterdeck. He went there, keeping himself anchored to the boat with chakra, and knocked at the door.

Karin opened the door, motioning for him to come in, silently.

She closed the door behind him, and the soundproofing seal came back up.

Everybody was here.

For the first time since the beginning of the trip, Shinjiro looked uneasy. Strange how worried that made him feel.

"What's happening?" He asked.

"That's the thing." Heizo answered. "We're not sure yet."

"And how late is it…?"

Shinjiro cracked a mirthless smile. "Middle of the afternoon."

Something cold settled in Naruto's gut.

Takaya muttered, nervously. "I think there might be a reason why nobody comes in this part of the world."

"I don't know what it means… but there's almost no signs of life around here. Barely any fish, only a few chakra signatures." Karin said, biting her fingernails.

"I used an echolocation jutsu in the water, and… these fish don't seem to be fish." Sakura added.

Naruto thought for a second.

"Well, I've made a diving suit. It's very basic, just a closed off helmet with a supply of air sealed into it. I won't be able to go very deep, but this should let us see if there's something in the water causing the articifial night."

"You can't be serious." Karin said. "You want to dive in this shit?"

"I don't see a better option. Relax, it's just going to be like a night dive."

"That's too dangerous." She folded her arms.

"Why don't you send a clone?" Sakura asked.

He blinked.

'Ah, yes.'

Naruto's clone hesitated for a second, before jumping in the water.

It was freezing. That made no sense, as the water had been pretty warm just a few hours ago.

His helmet was working, he could breathe and see as though he were outside of the water.

There was nothing besides dark water around him, and a few red fluorescent lights, that he hoped were plankton.

He sent chakra through his body to keep himself warm and swim faster.

Then he dove deeper.

Pitch black.

Even deeper. His chakra senses could feel something.

It was…

A sunken vessel.

It was resting on an underwater mountain, the kind that were supposed not to exist in this part of the world. Should he go in…?

He did.

He opened the door and something drew a labored breath next to him.

It was the same sound a half-strangled person would make when taking a deep breath of much-needed air.

He panicked.

Then suddenly he was on his back, staring at the surface, everything appearing in shades of darkness.

How did he get in this position? Why was he here?

There was a shadow coming toward him.

It let out a blood-curdling scream. So did Naruto.

He shielded himself with chakra and let out a bolt of Lightning.

It had been a fish. Only a fish, if a freaky looking one.

He looked around himself.

These were definitely piles of human bones in front of the hole in the hull.

One of them emitted bubbles and started moving. Naruto froze.

His senses were picking up something irregular.

The bubbles were not coming from the bone piles, but from behin-

He was suddenly grabbed and drug downwards, pulled at a speed he could not understand.

He was being pulled to the bottom of the sea. He pulsed his chakra one last time, forming a mental image of what had grabbed him.

Then he detonated himself, hoping to at least dissuade the... thing to come after them.

The real Naruto gasped for air when he received the memories.

"Holy fuck."

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked. "What was that?"

"…There's a boat carcass down there."

"A boat...? In this part of the world?" Shinjiro asked.

"Yes, and I would say it was a pretty old one, from the style of it. The kind you see in old books about the Age of Sail. There were bones, skeletons in it."

"...That can't be." Shinjiro said, somewhat tense.

"I know what I saw." Naruto said, arms folded.

"You're sure the boat is that old?"

"I'd say so. Why? What's the big deal?"

"Well… Bones can't last long in sea water."

"…How long?"

"Five years, or so, at most."

Naruto said nothing. The boat down there was much older. And had been here for centuries, he was sure.

A mystery to file for later. Not for when they were still on this god-forsaken sea.

"And there's the creature that grabbed me… My clone, I mean. I don't know what it was exactly, but it was huge. Like a monstrous sea dragon. It had several shiny beads… or eyes, I couldn't see much. I don't know. And a large chakra signature."

"What do you think we should do?"

"Isn't it obvious? We put more distance between us and this god-forsaken place. The creature lives deep, and probably won't come up... unless it feels we are worth the effort to eat. Let's hope it can't catch us."

"Very well, then. Full speed ahead."

Nobody went to bed.

And if Naruto kept everybody close together, in case he had to try to teleport all of them back on the continent… Nobody said anything about it.

Hours passed.

The sky turned from pitch black to a normal night sky all of a sudden.

Karin even felt the exact moment they crossed the boundary field that cast the starless night.

"It was some sort of illusion." She said, finally sitting down. "Probably the creature's."

Naruto focused on the chakra he could feel fading away in the distance.

"Yeah, it feels like it's its chakra. I had never thought..."

Takaya muttered a prayer.

"That must have been a sea god." He said. "An ocean-dwelling one, maybe a sea dragon."

Naruto didn't really believe in gods. There was something big underwater, though.

Later. They'd deal with it later. They had islands to find.

"Whatever that was, it was sentient enough to have this... field of night around itself."

The bright side of it was that they would know when they were in its territory. That was somewhat… reassuring.

"Well…" Naruto said."This was pretty fucking horrible. I'm going to try to forget all about tonight... This afternoon, I mean. I'm going to sleep now."

Heizo went too, leaving the two others to lead the ship.

When Naruto reached his room, Sakura and Karin were in front of it, each holding her futon.

"Wanna have a sleepover?" Sakura asked.

He chuckled a bit, feeling a bit less on edge. "Sure, why not."

Naruto woke up sleeping on his side, Sakura spooning him, and Karin spooning her.

If they're awake, they're not saying anything.

They stayed like this for a while.

Yesterday was bad.

Over the next few days, they travel at maximum speed, aiming to cover the remaining distance as fast as they could.

When Shinjiro knocked at their door, a week after that episode, it was with a smile and a full tea-pot.

"I can see the first islands on the horizon. The search won't be too long, I think. They seem livable on the southern side already. We're almost there."